Vol. 38, No. 1, January 2008 17
The Role Concept of Transactional Analysis and Other Approaches to Personality, Encounter, and
Cocreativity for All Professional Fields
Bernd Schmid
Abstract
This article is the final exposition of Bernd
Schmid’s keynote speech presented at the
2007 International Transactional Analysis
Conference in San Francisco. Schmid is the
winner of the 2007 Eric Berne M emorial
Award for his adaption of the transactional
analysis concept of ego states. His role model
integrates transactional analysis approaches
with systemic ideas and can be used as both
a personality model and a communication
model. It expands the ego state model, de-
scribing the individual as the portfolio of his
or her roles played on the stages of his or
her world. Background information about
these ideas are provided along with perspec-
tives that are integrated in this role model.
Familiar concepts—including intuition, en-
counter, empathy, humanity, and spirituality
—are described from the point of view of an
integrated approach.
______
In 2007 I was honored with the Eric Berne
Memorial Award (EBMA) for the role concept
of transactional analysis. I developed this con-
cept in the early 1990s. Drifting more and more
into the organizational field, I had become dis-
satisfied with many classical transactional
analysis concepts. Perspectives from clinical
transactional analysis were not focused on or-
ganizations as systems but on people in organi-
zations and their psychological and develop-
mental background. For organizational work, I
needed to focus on more dimensions of reality,
such as organizational roles, structures, market
dynamics, technical and economic criteria in
shaping prices, and so on.
To deal with my professional developmental
needs, I tried, on the one hand, to contribute to
discussions about the development of TA as an
approach in various professional fields and
about necessary changes in transactional analy-
sis identity and associations (e.g., Schmid,
1988, 1989, 1990a). On the other hand, I also
developed concepts and approaches that I
needed from a systemic perspective, integrating
transactional analysis ideas as well as elements
of the professional culture of TA. These were
then labeled systemic concepts, for example,
the role concept of personality. I acknowledged
the transactional analysis background of my
concepts, but I did not refer to them as transac-
tional analysis concepts. But as time has gone
by, I have come to refer to them as systemic
transactional analysis concepts.
In this article I will:
1. Briefly mention some of the transactional
analysis principles I use in my work and
additional perspectives that can guide con-
ceptual developments and professional
identities
2. Outline the role concept of transactional
analysis and give personality and rela-
tionship examples of using it
3. Give a short overview of some of the oth-
er concepts for personality, encounter,
and cocreativity developed at my institute
over the years
4. Discuss some expansions on Berne’s con-
cept of intuition, including intuition of
the possible
5. Make some remarks on empathy, human-
ity, and spirituality
Transactional Analysis: Principles Kept and
Additional Perspectives
Developmental theories and models of patho-
logical adaptations as well as strategies for
dealing with them were of great value to me
when I was a psychotherapist. Circles, arrows,
and triangles were great illustration tools for
BERND SCHMID
18 Transactional Analysis Journal
communicating transactional analysis approach-
es to others. To a certain extent, they also con-
tributed to my identity as a clinical member of
the transactional analysis community. How-
ever, the more I needed to define my transac-
tional analysis identity beyond the profession
of psychotherapist, the more other transactional
analysis qualities became essential.
I held many principles of transactional analy-
sis to be important, even when I did not intro-
duce myself as a transactional analyst. Among
them were:
• Focusing on real people in real life situa-
tions
• Focusing on how reality is created by trans-
actions
• Acknowledging and understanding multi-
ple background levels (e.g., psychological
level, organizational function, etc.)
• Accepting the necessary function of intui-
tion in creating reality
• Acting from a position of OK-OK and car-
ing love
• Being dedicated to how people find mean-
ing in life
• Encountering others on an equal level, re-
specting the other’s reality
• Taking each other’s autonomy and wisdom
seriously (e.g., by use of the contractual
method)
• Taking responsibility in relationships and
toward society
• Using concepts and procedures that can be
understood and related to by everyone in-
volved
• Keeping concepts as simple as possible yet
profound on a deeper level
• Achieving professionalism through trans-
actional competence
• Building nonabusive and nonexploitative
relationships
• Confronting each other about differences
in perception and culture
• Building pluralistic and nonimperialistic
associations
To have something that no one else has is an
immature wish to define one’s identity. Since
we all are part of our human community and
our time, we cannot expect to be unique by hav-
ing something no one else has. Identity should
be defined more by the specific way in which
we follow these values and the specific culture
of our associations (Schmid, 2007).
Beyond the models and theories I had from
classical transactional analysis, I needed to ex-
pand my ways of responding to the needs of the
organizational fields and to keep up with devel-
opments in other professional associations, es-
pecially in the systemic field. Some of these in-
cluded:
• Including organizational contexts in mod-
els of personality and relationships
• Focusing on organizational structures and
processes as well as on individuals and
their relationships
• Orienting toward cocreativity, solutions,
and meaning
• Including consequences for people and
processes that are not present in the situa-
tion
• Including the content and purpose of com-
munication, structures, and processes
• Including other background levels (e.g.,
financial benefit or marketing strategy) in
addition to psychological background
• Shaping approaches to fit interplay and in-
tegration with other professions and per-
spectives in organizations
• Developing approaches that integrate dif-
ferent scientific disciplines (not only as an
additional speciality or an appendix to
psychological considerations)
• Taking seriously the autonomous identity
of different professions and priorities ac-
cording to their fields
• Being open to using a variety of approach-
es, concepts, and methods according to the
developmental needs of various profes-
sional fields, just as I do with transactional
analysis
• Developing a declared transactional analy-
sis identity that takes a metastance to clas-
sical concepts and to developing profes-
sionalism in various fields and meeting
emerging new challenges
I am sure that much of what I wanted to add
has also been realized by many colleagues and
handled in an individual way to expand their
practice and identity. But isn’t the official iden-
tity of transactional analysis still very traditional
THE ROLE CONCEPT OF TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS
Vol. 38, No. 1, January 2008 19
and bound to earlier developmental stages of
TA associations? Why do so many institutes
and professionals use additional labels or shift
to approaches other than transactional analysis
or even leave it altogether?
The success in spreading the classical basic
concepts of transactional analysis—such as ego
states, games, rackets, scripts, the psychologi-
cal level of transactions, and so on—has a down-
side. Nowadays, professionals in many fields
are confronted with problematic reactions when
they identify themselves as transactional
analysts. Sometimes people are interested but
have misleading expectations; sometimes they
lose interest because they do not want to have
what they think transactional analysis is. For
the individual professional, it is a strain to ex-
plain all the time. An official process of devel-
oping and spreading new identity statements
for transactional analysis could bring relief and
make it more attractive to clearly label oneself
as a transactional analyst.
The Role Model
The role model is an expansion of the ego
state model, and thus, on the one hand, it is
used as a personality model and, on the other
hand, as a communication model. This is why
the role model can be used in combination with
many familiar transactional analysis concepts
and procedures. Here I can only give a short
explanation and a few examples. For further
explanation, see my article on the role concept
(Schmid, 1994).
In the role model of personality, a person is
described as the portfolio of his or her roles
played on the stages of his or her world.
In this model, people’s uniqueness and hu-
manness are expressed in the way they struc-
ture their roles. They are also expressed as con-
tent and in the way roles are experienced and
lived. The model implies for pragmatic pur-
poses that people in their humanness only exist
and are experienced through their roles. Going
beyond ego states, roles connect people with
plays and stages of their worlds. Thus, person-
ality is also a matter of context and content.
This facilitates professional positioning and
intelligent and meaningful complexity control
in organizations.
In previous articles I have developed a “three-
world model” (see Schmid, 1990b) in order to
pose the question of personality in light of deal-
ing with three worlds: the private, the organiza-
tional, and the professional worlds. According
to other differentiations, the worlds could be
different in number or definition. For example,
Mohr (2006) designed a four-world model in
which the community world is its own category.
My three worlds are the private world, the
organizational world, and the professional world
(see Figure 1).
Figure 1Three-world Personality Model and Role-ladder Model
BERND SCHMID
20 Transactional Analysis Journal
The distinction between the organizational
world and the professional world is particularly
helpful for a better understanding and more au-
tonomous definition of oneself in organizations.
Many questions confront the same person in dif-
ferent ways depending on whether those ques-
tions are put from an organizational role (e.g.,
as a representative for women’s rights), from a
professional role (e.g., as a social worker), or
from a private role (e.g., as a mother to-be).
Definition of Role. A role is a coherent sys-
tem of attitudes, feelings, behaviors, perspec-
tives on reality, and accompanying relation-
ships. This takes into account that every role is
linked with and refers to a certain sphere of
reality and related frames of reference. The de-
scription of roles always touches the descrip-
tion of relationships corresponding to these
roles and the play the role is played out in.
From the view of the person, every role entails
ideas about the kind of relationships that can be
shaped from and are suggested by this role.
Illustration. The diversity and meaning of
roles is immediately understandable when we
imagine a road accident in which we encounter
the people involved, their neighbors, the presi-
dent of the local community action group, the
head of operations of the technological relief
organization, the doctor on emergency call, the
police responsible for securing the scene of the
accident and future evidence, and a colleague
who happens to be passing by. We can imagine
many other roles that—depending on the event
—activate their own attitudes, feelings, and be-
haviors and their own perspectives on reality.
Each person is dealing mainly with certain as-
pects of reality and, on the basis of his or her
role, has clear ideas about how he or she should
structure his or her relationships with the other
people present at the scene of the accident. If
the fire department’s head of operations hap-
pens to be a personal friend of one of the badly
injured victims and also godfather to this per-
son’s son, who is also present but uninjured, we
can imagine that several roles are activated
simultaneously and that their coexistence with-
in this one person must be controlled in such a
situation.
Discussing Personality. Under the headings
of “role integration” and “resource policy,” ques-
tions about autonomy and mature adult func-
tioning are discussed here.
Today professionals are challenged with
ever-increasing diverse roles and must also—in
organizations, for example—combine various
affiliations with different systems of reference.
This renders it barely possible to identify one-
self with one role or with a small, manageable
bundle of roles. Rather, one must acquire an
autonomous, professional attitude in the selec-
tion and shaping of roles as well as in the de-
cision about and control of affiliations. Getting
used to the net of roles and references in one’s
own way is a huge task in itself. However, we
are additionally confronted by potential con-
flicts between diverse affiliations and roles. It
thus becomes essential to be economical with
available resources (including our own resour-
ces of energy and time). In modern business,
managers of corporations are generally eaten
up by the great role demands made on them,
unless they control complexity by means of
their own autonomous identity and concentrate
congruent role configurations into viable struc-
tures.
An integrated personality is the concept of a
mature personality, meaning a person who can
integrate diverse roles in different worlds in a
functional and essential way. People express
their essence—their distinctive characteristics
—in the form of integration as well as in the
style of their roles. The circle in Figure 1 is a
symbol for the necessity of integrating roles
and worlds.
A variety of other questions around person-
ality discussed in classical transactional analy-
sis gain different perspectives and additional
dimensions using the role concept. For example:
• Under the rubric “congruity of roles,”
questions about the notion of ego-syntonic/
ego-dystonic are discussed.
• Under the rubric “activating roles/leading
roles,” energy concepts and executive pow-
er are discussed. Professionalism has a
good deal to do with the ability to activate
and deactivate certain roles at will and also
with structuring situations to provide the
appropriate triggers for activating comple-
mentary role relationships in others in-
volved.
THE ROLE CONCEPT OF TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS
Vol. 38, No. 1, January 2008 21
• “Role competence” is an additional notion
that acknowledges that competence is more
than becoming free from neurotic restric-
tions. Role competence means having con-
trol over the coherent system of attitudes,
feelings, behavior, perspectives on reality,
and the accompanying relationships that
are bundled with the role. It also includes
understanding and matching with the intend-
ed play. (See formula of competence later in
this article.) Many personality problems have
to do with the fact that the necessity of ac-
quiring role competence is not recognized or
not taken seriously, or inadequate steps are
taken on the way to acquiring it.
• “Restriction of the personality” is consi-
dered in terms of role restrictions, role
fixation, role exclusion, role contamina-
tion, role confusion, role habits, and con-
ventions (rackets). Many considerations
from discussing ego states can be applied
and expanded easily.
As an illustration, I view role contamination
as analogous to Berne’s (1961/1966) ideas about
contamination; role contamination is the chron-
ic inclusion of elements from other roles in a
role without the person being aware of it. In such
circumstances, the individual considers the in-
clusion of elements alien to the role as appro-
priate to it. For example, in wage negotiations,
someone in a bargaining agent role might ex-
perience feelings of indignation seeping in,
feelings that arise from his consternation at the
expected wage reduction for himself as an indi-
vidual. These feelings can be easily mistaken
for feelings appropriate to the role of negotiator
in order to balance out the diverse problems and
interests and, if necessary, to set them in con-
trast to the conflicting interests of the other ne-
gotiating party. In another example, someone
may activate behaviors in a private argument
that would be more appropriate to the psycho-
therapeutic treatment of patients without identi-
fying such feelings as alien to the private role
relationship.
Discussing Communication: The Role Model
and Reality in Relationships. From the system-
ic perspective, communication is the cocreative
process of inventing reality. Communication is
not only an exchange of messages but also a
definition of the roles from which we commu-
nicate, the contexts we refer to or create, and
the relevant relationships and ongoing play.
Much of this happens so automatically and
with a mutually safeguarded preconception that
this process often escapes our attention. Careful
attention to the beginning of communication as
an embryonic situation and guiding force for
communication outcomes has a good tradition
in transactional analysis and should thus be ex-
tended to the confirmation or nonconfirmation
of preconceptions and/or new definitions when
communication begins.
Analogously, staging a communication situa-
tion and the communicating partner’s state-
ments can be understood as contributions to the
invention of realities. In a barely predefined
space, it is particularly easy to observe how
dialogues and multilogues between the indi-
viduals involved serve cocreation. The ensuing
relationships and the realities in which they are
described are the object of observation from
the perspective of relationships. Here we can
distinguish whether the participants in the com-
municative process either stage reality habitu-
ally or generate it anew. By employing the role
model, we preclude the assumption that indi-
viduals, as such, are in charge. When observing
people in their roles, social and system powers
come into view. They have a far greater determi-
ning influence on the roles than the protagonists
of the role are aware of. Difficulties can also arise
when background role relationships, unnoticed by
the communicators, determine the course of the
official, foreground role relationships.
Using role model transactions, games and
dysfunctional symbiotic relationships can be
described as well. The diagram of the func-
tional ladder model helps to illustrate interac-
tion (Figure 2).
Illustration. Imagine a strategy discussion
between the head of a human resource depart-
ment and his team, with the agenda being to
decide on priorities. At first, discussion is on
the level of organizational roles, during which
(according to the company’s culture) people
can offer suggestions, although they must leave
the final decision to the head (transaction 1./2.
in Figure 2). After some time, unnoticed by the
participants, there is a switch to professional
BERND SCHMID
22 Transactional Analysis Journal
Figure 2Presentation of Transactions with the Help ofan Example of the Role Model of Personality
argument (transaction 3./4. in Figure 2), in
which everyone feels dominated and as if they
do not have equal rights. In the background,
there might be male rivalry directed toward a
woman also present. The psychological ap-
proach might suggest directing attention to this
kind of background. The organizational con-
sulting approach might direct attention to the
switch in roles and role relationships. However,
reestablishing stable communication between
organizational roles might solve the problem.
Backgrounds connected with private life, its
history, and actual dynamics is only one kind of
background. Here is an example for an organi-
zational background level: Two employees of
a department might believe that they have a
problem working together as professionals, let
us say the communication trainer and training
administrator. They deal with the problem from
the opinions and habits of their respective pro-
fessions and from the relationship between
these professions. However, they might over-
look the fact that the difficulties in the relation-
ship are defined much more by the organiza-
tional structure and by incompatible, doubly
defined areas of responsibility than by the
different professions. There would be further
evidence to back up this perspective if the soft-
ware trainers in the neighboring departments
had similar relationship problems with training
administration.
In organizational roles there can be relation-
ship problems that control professional argu-
ments from the background. The awareness
(real self) of those concerned may be located in
the professional roles in the foreground. For the
clarification of such situations, it is important
to bring the background relationship of the
organizational role into the foreground and
make it the focus of attention. Such arguments
can influence the private relationships of those
concerned and bring more private reactions to
the foreground. This can relax the situation
without really solving the organizational prob-
lem or even increase tension because the prob-
lem is dealt with on a level on which no
solution can be found. Escalations may lead to
various neurotic reactions. To deal with them
may necessitate a good deal of psychotherapeu-
tic work. If solved on an organizational level,
people may return to competent behavior and
good relationships on their own, because the
organization became more functional and thus
healthier.
These explanations and examples hopefully
show how transactional analysis can be en-
riched using the role model. It is not the con-
tent that is new, as many competent transac-
tional analysts do competent work in nonclini-
cal fields. What is new is the way of conceptu-
alizing these things using other models of per-
sonality and communication, thus serving the
needs and identity of many professional fields
using many valuable transactional analysis ap-
proaches and without depending on clinical TA
explanations.
More Concepts Available for Transactional
Analysis
The presented role concept is one of many
new concepts I developed to deal with cocrea-
tive relationships, including a variety of pos-
sible background levels and questions related
to professional and organizational culture.
They are already published in German. Many
of them are published in English as articles,
THE ROLE CONCEPT OF TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS
Vol. 38, No. 1, January 2008 23
and other translations can be downloaded free
from my W eb site (e.g., Schmid, 2006). If a
publisher can be found, much of this work
could soon be published in English as a book.
To give a first impression, some of these mod-
els are mentioned here briefly.
Communication as Cultural Encounter. This
model (Figure 3) describes communication as
encounter of cultures (personal, professional,
regional, etc.).
Figure 3Communication as Cultural Encounter
This concept does not assume that mutual un-
derstanding is normal. It expects that each com-
municator involved is predominantly oriented
to his or her own reality. To communicate ef-
fectively, it is necessary to study the realities of
the sender and the recipient. The model as-
sumes that creating shared reality is a necessary
extra effort. If mutual understanding and influ-
encing fails, the implications and interests of
the communicators must be studied further.
What sense do the messages make in the oth-
er’s reality?
Encounter Levels of Communication for Es-
tablishing Shared Frames of Reference. This
model (based on Schiff et al., 1975) (see Figure
4), shows different levels of shared frames of
reference that build up into shared realities.
Problems usually appear on level 4 but are due
to mismatching on level 1-3. Along with this
concept, there were changes suggested in
Schiff’s terminology so as to describe a rela-
tionship between equals (e.g., accounting and
discounting or definition, codefinition, and re-
definition).
The Theater Metaphor of Personality and
Cocreative Relationships. This is a model for
understanding personality as a portfolio of one’s
Figure 4Communication Levels for
Establishing Shared Reality
roles, stages, themes, stories, and styles of
plays (see Figure 5).
It is also a model for understanding relation-
ships as encounter in which individuals and
organizations meet for inventing shared plays
and tying together roles, stages, stories, and so
on (see Figure 6).
Figure 5Personality in Terms of the Theater Metaphor
BERND SCHMID
24 Transactional Analysis Journal
Figure 6Encounter in Terms of the Theater Metaphor
Formula of Competence and Matching be-
tween Individuals and Organizations. This mod-
el indicates that, from a systemic perspective,
competence is not only a general property of a
person but is to be differentiated into role com-
petence and context competence (see Figure 7).
Using the theater metaphor, this differentiates
competence to play roles and competence to
understand the play in which roles are played.
If necessary, both must be invented in a cocrea-
tive process. Competence in a specific organi-
zation or field is dependent on how well the in-
dividuals and the organizations match. Thus,
competence is defined as the product of these
three components.
Figure 7Formula for Professional Competence
Beyond that, matching includes many other
dimensions designed to answer the question:
How does an organization make sense for an
individual and how does an individual make
sense for an organization (market/association,
etc.) (see Figure 8)?
Figure 8Matching between Individual and Organization
THE ROLE CONCEPT OF TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS
Vol. 38, No. 1, January 2008 25
Dialogue on Responsibility in Organizations.
This concept of a culture of responsibility in
organizations (Schmid, 2005) is based on the
transactional analysis concept of symbiotic re-
lationships and passive behaviors (Schiff et al.,
1975). It is further developed for dealing with
responsibilities in organizations. Starting from
the idea that the word “responsibility” contains
the word “response,” it distinguishes between
four dimensions of response-ability.
With reference to their positions at work,
people:
• Want to respond (are dedicated): This is a
question of values.
• Are able to respond: This is a question of
being qualified to respond.
• Have the resources to respond: This is a
question of being sufficiently equipped.
• Must respond: This is a question of obliga-
tion.
Responsibilities are conceptualized as comple-
mentary, related parts of a whole system of re-
sponsibility (see Figure 9).
Figure 9The System of Complementary Roles
and Related Responsibilities
In this approach, a distinction is made be-
tween responsibility for . . . (e.g., a certain job
with corresponding tasks, performance, and
people) and responsibility related to . . . (re-
quires the development and maintenance of an
organizational ethic and [self-]commitment to
the integration of one’s own actions into the
overall system).
Dimensions of Whom or What Meets in the
Dialogue. Different approaches have different
perspectives on what is essential in communi-
cation and what has priority to be observed and
trained. Four levels are differentiated so as to
invite considerations for further improvement.
That is, are there (1) individual behaviors, (2)
attitudes, (3) personal myths (e.g., script stor-
ies), and (4) organizational, professional, and
cultural myths involved (see Figure 10)?
Figure 10Who or What Meets in the Dialogue?
The Dialogue Model of Communication.
This model, which refers to the intuition con-
cepts of Berne, Jung, and Erickson, shows how
methodical and intuitive levels of communi-
cation together contribute to cocreative reali-
ties. Professional competence and organiza-
tional culture depend on focused dialogues be-
tween these spheres (see Figure 11).
What do all these models offer?
• The possibility of being adopted as trans-
actional analysis models of personality and
encounter
• Inclusion of complex backgrounds, con-
texts, and contents
• Examples from a variety of application
fields together with the imbedded ideas
BERND SCHMID
26 Transactional Analysis Journal
Figure 11Dialogue Model of Communication
• Encouragement for constructing new mod-
els as needed in different professional ap-
proaches
• A language focused on positively creating
reality
• Cocreative alliances within and between
people and organizations
• Opening up intuition and supporting intui-
tive and scientific communication cultures
• Inviting an attitude in which orientation to
responsibility in society, task fulfillment,
and caring for intuitive backgrounds and
meaningful life courses are balanced
It is not that these aspects are not somehow
covered when transactional analysts work, but
can they become TA? Models like this are prob-
ably tolerated, if used by transactional analysts,
but can they claim to be a further development
of transactional analysis? If asked what trans-
actional analysis is, don’t most TA people talk
about ego states, games, and scripts as has been
traditional for the last 50 years?
In the organizational field, we need to adapt
the program of transactional analysis for pro-
fessionals, who have a mix of many roles and
contexts, who must deal with overwhelming com-
plexity, and who are responsible for creating
realities together that fit the goals and needs of
our society. This means not only the needs of
those present, but also those who are touched
by the implications and consequences. For this
we must expand the horizons of quality criteria
beyond the OK-OK relationship between hu-
mans present. This must include more than the
psychological perspective. And certainly we
are dedicated to meaningful individual life
courses and a shared culture of realizing the
individual life plans of people involved and
touched, while being dedicated to common
goals and ethics.
Some Remarks on Intuition
Transactional analysis started with Berne’s
studies on intuition. TA concepts came about
as crystallizations of Berne’s (and others) intui-
tion as it was focused on psychotherapy. Berne
defined intuition, based on Aristotle, as the way
we know something without knowing how we
know and often without knowing in words what
we know, although we act as if we know (Berne,
1949/1977). Intuition is a way to know about and
create reality through action (Schmid, 1991).
Intuition can be qualified or unqualified, and
it can lead us or mislead us. Professional intui-
THE ROLE CONCEPT OF TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS
Vol. 38, No. 1, January 2008 27
tion must be trained and become focused ac-
cording to what sphere is relevant and for what
professional purposes it is needed.
Different professionals should have different
masteries of intuition because they have differ-
ent spheres of reality to deal with and different
responsibilities.
Intuition of the Possible. Berne focused on
intuitive perceptions of realities that have al-
ready occurred somewhere sometime. In addi-
tion, I point to a whole sphere of intuitions that
are not covered by Berne’s concept of intuition,
that is, the perception of the possible. Jung
(1921/1972), and especially his follower Marie-
Luise von Franz (von Franz & Hillmann,
1980), pointed to this dimension of intuition. It
refers to the whole sphere of phenomena that
could be real instead of what is real already. It
is the perception of the potential. And some-
body must realize it, which means perceiving
the possibility and making it real.
Berne’s intuitions meant perceptions of rep-
resented archaic realities. Jung’s intuition meant
also the anticipation of possible realities; his
intuition is needed for finding new trails rather
than detecting old pathways.
Limitations to Intuition. Berne taught us that
intuition is limited or contaminated by two
sources:
1. Taboos: This means that we are not al-
lowed to deal with certain aspects of re-
ality.
2. Desires and fears: This means we are
seduced or blocked or driven by hidden
motivations that we do not dare face or
admit.
If we include content, context, and intuition
of the possible, we need to add some further
limitations, and I guess we could find even
more. Each of the following points could be
formulated as chance or resource, but I view
them as restrictions following Berne’s use:
3. Fixations in habits, including cultural,
professional, and organizational habits:
We just do it because we learned to do it
and always have done it.
4. Lack of competence and knowledge: In-
tuition is also learned as part of profes-
sional knowledge and experience. If we
do not have relevant experience or
knowledge, this is also lacking in the vari-
ety of our intuitions. If we do not know
which kind of intuitions to activate in
which professional role or organizational
context, our intuitions may be vague, mis-
chosen, or misplaced.
5. Blocking experimental flow: In complex,
constantly changing situations, it is often
necessary to work on first ideas and find
out more on the way. Working in an ex-
perimental mode means not knowing
which models and approaches to use
when we start. It challenges us not to re-
duce things to familiar concepts but to
become creative and to learn quickly.
Evidence and importance and acceptabil-
ity may change in every moment. In addi-
tion, intuition must be flexible and not
stick to ideas once adopted. This also
means leaving open what we do not un-
derstand and pointing to what we are not
qualified for. If we stick to approaches
and explanations that are plausible at first
and can easily be justified, we are in dan-
ger of choosing “safe” intuitions and do
not dare to leave things open and wait (or
ask) for other more relevant intuitions.
6. Lack of tuning into each other’s spirit:
Empathetic dialogue in our habitual areas
of private or professional empathy may
not be enough. Beyond this, empathy needs
to include tuning into each other’s possi-
ble essence and possibilities that are in
shadow. This may also include images
about tendencies of the soul, such as act-
ing more like an official or sleeping tal-
ents like working with metaphors. It also
includes imagery about possibly satisfy-
ing steps in someone’s life course at a
specific moment, such starting one’s own
business. If intuition involves habitually
oriented viewpoints—such as how the
professional can be important for the cli-
ent or how he could confront using trans-
actional analysis concepts or which feel-
ings may be blocked—then the intuitive
wisdom coming from understanding the
spirit of the other is lacking.
7. Lack of inspiring ideas and creative de-
signs for future realities.
BERND SCHMID
28 Transactional Analysis Journal
Besides intuitions concerning the human be-
ings involved, inspiring ideas for creative de-
signs on stages in the outer world are as impor-
tant for many professions. For example, if you
are working with an organizational team, it may
be an endless enterprise or not really relevant
work that contributes to the success of the ef-
fort if you focus on working through personal
issues or confronting group dynamics. If the
team’s unsatisfying situation is due to the lack
of ideas about how the team could be success-
ful (e.g., which moves could work to set up a
new project, etc.), then intuition should be fo-
cused on creating these ideas. If there is no
competence in that area of intuition, it does not
make sense just to do things with which the
consultant is familiar.
Finally, the integration of all of these intui-
tions and their combination into images of
pathways to the future that are realistic for the
people engaged is important. Much of intuitive
ability is based on knowledge and experience
and the result of professional training on intui-
tion in these areas. For this kind of training, an
elaborated methodology and language is essen-
tial. Transactional analysis has optimal resour-
ces for that and could put this into the main
focus of its identity.
Building an organizational and professional
culture in which professional intuition is a main
focus and in which a power field for the devel-
opment of such competence is created could be
a core field for transactional analysis.
Remarks on Empathy, Humanity, and
Spirituality
I often encounter sympathetic but romantic
worldviews around the terms “empathy,” “hu-
manity,” and “spirituality,” and I want to offer
some more prosaic remarks on these topics. I
do so not to put these ethical dimensions down,
but to ground them deeper in terms of facing
the complex problems of today’s society.
Empathy. Empathy in psychotherapy is main-
ly focused on other people’s feelings or on past
experiences and former relationships in the
background. Empathy is often connected with
having corresponding feelings. This has not
changed much during the last four decades, even
though recent discussions in the field have been
enriched by the neuroscientific concept of mir-
ror neurons.
It is certainly important for each individual to
learn to tune into others’ actual ways of experi-
encing and acting. This contributes to mutual
bonding and building a circle of relevant oth-
ers. However, I question whether the backward
orientation in personal life history and focusing
on feelings is the most important part of em-
pathy.
I suppose that many psychotherapists are
successful not so much because of their sharing
past experiences and corresponding feelings,
but because of their intuition of possible op-
tions and ideas about how those options can be
created as reality through communication. This
may sometimes be the main reason why clients
are willing to cooperate and cocreate with ther-
apists a metaphor for the past and the present,
hoping that will offer a link to a metaphor
about the future.
In addition to emotional empathy there is in-
tellectual empathy. Together with emotional
empathy, the latter fosters an understanding of
how other people interpret their situation and
what they are heading for, are about to do or
develop, and how we might cooperate or at
least relate to that. This part of the story may
not have much to do with feelings but may
relate to other ways of understanding the other
person’s life situation and attempts to handle it.
Empathy means “reading” what is going to
happen and be done and be created by others
and relating to that through action. The roots of
this may go back to an early tribal fight for sur-
vival, when our ancestors could only survive
through cooperation and creating mutual bene-
fit. Without empathy for the emerging future
and promising actions, cooperation is not easy
and cocreation is almost impossible.
If someone does not have enough positive
experience with bonding to engage in coopera-
tive relationships, he or she might need to re-
solve this through psychotherapy to a certain
extent. On the other hand, the person might
need training in understanding and correspond-
ing to other’s actions in the current play and to
understand tendencies. If cocreation and co-
operation goes well and is beneficial, this may
also create bonding and relatedness. Kohlrieser
THE ROLE CONCEPT OF TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS
Vol. 38, No. 1, January 2008 29
(2006), for example, goes in a promising direc-
tion in his work.
Humanity. Global humanity does not come
from empathy, emotional bonding, and cocrea-
tivity alone. This might be sufficient for what
can be called “tribal humanity.” You may treat
your people in a human manner and at the same
time demonstrate inhuman attitudes and behav-
iors toward others. Close attachment and coop-
eration within the group—what we call “we”—
always goes together with imperialism and
exploitation of those who are called “others.” I
assume that empathy is the way evolution en-
abled us to cooperate and to have solidarity
within the tribe in order to survive. What must
be added so that we can survive as a global
community?
Taking a closer look, we become aware that
there are no “others”! We are all “the others.”
Global humanity challenges us to treat every
human being as one of us, even when we do not
feel like that. We need insight into this inter-
dependency in order to influence our feelings.
To augment this kind of humanity, we must
deal with specific questions in education. What
helps us to cooperate creatively with people
who are strange to us and to whom we do not
feel close and attached? How can we remain
peaceful and tolerant when we do not have per-
sonal contact and empathetic reactions? How
can we contribute to peace when we feel scared,
blackmailed, and oppressed, when we suffer
from cruelty and injustice? How must we act
politically, and how do we have an impact on
our governments? Intellectual insight and auto-
nomy against spontaneous reactions and needs
play an important role in that process. Global
humanity has more and different challenges
than “tribal humanity” and requires more than
what transactional analysis can offer today.
Cocreativity and Spirituality. We have many
good, down-to-earth reasons for cocreativity so
far. Let me add a personal up-to-heaven reason.
Cocreativity is spiritual.
1. For me there is no image of a personal
God. If there is a God, it is beyond my
anthropomorphic projections and prob-
ably more principle or sphere. To para-
phrase Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a famous
German Protestant theologian murdered
by the Nazis, Mutatis mutandis: The God
existing in our imaginations doesn’t exist
(Bonhoeffer, 1998). But there is spiritual
experience. The universe and evolution
are miracles to me. To be in tune with as-
pects of those is a spiritual experience.
2. God is, for me, the creative principle of
evolution, and the outcome of evolution
is not determined.
3. God is not almighty. We are challenged
to help bring up meaningful creations of
cultural evolution.
4. Nobody can be creative alone. We need
each other in many respects. If we come
into a creative flow together, that is a
spiritual experience for many people.
5. If we can elicit meaningful cocreativity,
that is realizing caring love.
6. To take that responsibility is part of our
dignity as individuals and as organiza-
tions. Cocreativity is not always pleasant
and should not be equated with fun. It is
sometimes hard work and frustration. It is
sometimes a gift for or from people we
do not know and never meet.
To conclude, my hopes for transactional
analysis are that it will be a transactional ap-
proach to cocreativity in professions, in organi-
zations, and in our private lives as well.
Bernd Schmid, Dr. Phil., Teaching and
Supervising Transactional Analyst, is founder
and head of the Institut für systemische Bera-
tung in Wiesloch, Germany. The ISB-Wiesloch
specializes in qualifying professionals in the
field of organizations. Bernd studied econom-
ics and earned his doctorate in education and
psychology in 1972 from the University of
Mannheim. His special interests include sys-
temic teaching, professionalization, working
with culture, and working with dreams and
psychological images. He is an honorary mem-
ber of the Systemische Gesellschaft (the Ger-
man Systemic Association) and winner of the
European Association for Transactional Analy-
sis (EATA) award for authors. Bernd is also a
Teaching Member of other societies in the field
of psychotherapy, coaching, supervision, sys-
temic consulting, and organizational and per-
sonal development. He is the cofounder and
BERND SCHMID
30 Transactional Analysis Journal
chair of Deutscher Bundesverband Coaching
(the German coaching organization), founder
and longstanding chair of the Gesellschaft für
Weitebildung und Supervision (the Association
for Adult Education and Supervision). He lec-
tures and teaches at several universities (e.g.,
Heidelberg and Mannheim) and is on the su-
pervising board for the University of Educa-
tion, Heidelberg. In addition, Bernd is a coun-
cil member of Das gepfefferte Ferke, an online
journal for systemic thinking and acting; editor
of the book series Systemische Professionalität
und Beratung EHP, Bergisch Gladbach, and
was the coeditor from 2001-2005 of Profile, an
international journal for change, study, and
dialogue. Bernd has authored several books,
many articles, and audio documents. He can
be reached at his Web site at www.isb-w.de or
by e-mail at [email protected] .
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